Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Devon is a high school graduate from Georgia waiting to go to NYU in the fall. She dreams of going to school for sociology but is expected to be a nurse because that is what her father is pushing her to do. After her mom struggles with her mental health and spends time in a treatment facility over her relationship with Devon’s father, Devon travels with her to Maryland to stay with her grandmother.

Devon knows that she is queer. Although she has had sex with a boy, she only has romantic attraction to girls. However, she has only ever kissed two girls—once in fifth grade to “practice,” and her best friend, Amy, when she was drunk.

Where Devon’s grandmother lives in Parish Point, Maryland, it is rural and mostly white, making Devon—who is Black—feel uncomfortable around many of the residents. When she goes to the grocery store on her first day there, she has an awkward interaction with a woman who comments on her hair and even tries to touch it. The woman’s sister, Sarah, whom Devon is immediately attracted to, stops the woman. The two chat, and Sarah says she regularly goes to the library that Devon’s grandmother runs, so they will see each other there.